


Grim Grinning Ghosts: a haunted mansion ficlet

by madame_faust



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Disney World & Disneyland, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madame_faust/pseuds/madame_faust
Summary: Raul Chavez is taking his girlfriend Christine to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party...at least, that's how it's advertised. Two problems: Number One, Raul hates Halloween. Number Two, Christine doesn't know that.





	Grim Grinning Ghosts: a haunted mansion ficlet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wheel_of_fish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_of_fish/gifts).

He couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t. Christine was_ so_ happy, which was…rare this time of year. They’d planned this trip specifically to counterbalance the August Blues, a chronic depression that settled in every year around the anniversary of her father’s passing. 

It was different, now. Rather than cancelling plans last-minute or delaying Sunday brunch with her girlfriends so she could light candles in church for her dad, she was instead fussing over her Magic Band (hitchhiking ghosts), agonizing over her Disneybound (green and black stripped tights, black overall shorts and a purple t-shirt, voila, she was a ride attendant), and waking him up at 6AM the day before their trip started to get the best boarding position for Southwest (A25 for her, B2 for him). 

They were doing a long weekend trip, Thursday-Monday, so they could attend two of the Halloween parties at the Magic Kingdom. They got tickets on the super-cheap from a friend of Christine’s from undergrad who was a cast member. The reason they were going twice was because he was working one of the parties as a meet-and-greet character, but had the second party off to hang out. And that was the problem.

Raul didn’t want to go to the party twice. He didn’t want to go to the party once. He _hated_ Halloween.

Not just Halloween, but scary things in general. He didn’t do haunted houses, corn mazes, he didn’t click ANY of the links to the creepypastas Christine occasionally texted him. It started in childhood: being the youngest by a lot in his family meant that his teenage sisters were often called upon to babysit their preschool-age brother. Which meant he spent a lot of time with them, listening to conversations he was too young to understand and watching movies he was DEFINITELY too young to watch. 

Like _Trick r’ Treat_. Which permanently put him off Halloween at age ten. Yeah, come to think of it, his sisters were pretty irresponsible. 

Compared to that, the Haunted Mansion ought to be pretty tame. Cute ghosts and a catchy song. Raul wouldn’t know, though - he’d never actually been brave enough to ride it before.

They got checked in for the party early, at four o’clock, because Christine wanted to ride rides before the party was in full swing, so they could enjoy the parade, castle stage show, and fireworks without rushing around the park. Raul figured they’d hit up the Jungle Cruise or Pirates or something non-spooky. But once their party bands hand been snapped on and their starter treat bags given to them, Christine grabbed his hand with a twinkle in her eyes and said, “Shake a leg, Ghost Host!” as she dragged him in the direction of Liberty Square.

Although Christine didn’t know the depths of Raul’s aversion to being scared (he was convinced she’d break up with him if she did), she did understand that he wasn’t quite as into the spirit (ha!) of the occasion as she was. She bought him a plain black t-shirt that said ‘Welcome, Foolish Mortals’ on it and was satisfied with that as a costume. She got a lot of compliments on her Disneybound and she did pause them on their walk through the crowds to compliment a group who’d come dressed as the characters from_ The Emperor’s New Groove_. But all too soon they found themselves walking under the gate proclaiming the wait time. 

“Twenty minutes - not bad!” Christine grinned up at Raul and squeezed his hand. 

He squeezed back, a little harder than simple affection called for. Twenty minutes to prep. To prepare. To get ready -

But the sign was a lie. A hideous, horrible lie. Because it wasn’t a 20 minute wait. They walked along the river, bypassed the weird busts, the fake headstones, the creepy statue of the lady that blinked - and walked right into cool darkness.

Beside him, Christine was vibrating happiness. “No wait! _So_ cool!”

“Cool,” Raul repeated. And shivered - if she noticed, he hoped she’d attribute it to the air conditioning. 

They passed a portrait of a young man, slowly becoming more spectral and decrepit as they were hurried into a portrait room. A creepy voice sounded over unseen speakers and Raul stopped behind a crowd of people in the middle of the room.

_“Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everyone.”_

“Raul!” Christine stage-whispered at him and gestured for him to stand at the edge of the carpet facing a picture of a blandly smiling elderly woman wearing a shawl.

“STEP AWAY FROM THE WALLS!”

Raul jumped a mile - a woman in a maid costume who had been standing directly behind him bellowed in his ear. He was just about to tell her off for sneaking up on people, but Christine laughed and gave the girl a thumb’s up. The girl (her nametag said she was Brittany from Tampa) gave Christine’s outfit a once-over and briefly flashed a smile in her direction. 

The walls - or was it the floor? - started moving. The creepy voice droned on and on, _“Is this haunted room ACTUALLY STRETCHING? Or is it your imagination?”_ and Raul felt a trickle of icy sweat trail down his back under his t-shirt._ “And consider this dismaying observation - this chamber has NO WINDOWS and NO DOORS. Which leaves you with this chilling challenge - TO FIND A WAY OUT!”_

There were doors, Raul reminded himself as his lizard hind-brain started to panic. They’d entered through a door… but where had it been?

There was a low murmur of sound around him as people in the crowd mumbled the dialogue along with the Ghost Host. Christine tilted her chin up expectantly toward the ceiling and Raul followed suit, wondering if this was the whole ride and if it was, it seemed really short -

Then the lights went out. There was a thump. Then the ceiling went clear and a _body was seen dangling from the rafters_.

Someone in the crowd chose that exact time to let out a bloodcurdling scream. Which caused Raul to yelp and let out a very un-Disney-like curse word.

Then the lights came back on. A toddler who had been hanging out in his dad’s arm peacefully this whole time was crying. Raul felt a deep kinship with the toddler. The dad looked pissed off.

“Come on, man,” he complained to the source of the in-room screaming. “Not cool.”

“I was just trying to have fun!” the screamer said defensively. “It’s Halloween!”

“It’s not even September!”

But a door opened directly behind Christine and Raul and she tilted her head toward the exit, away from the arguing tourists and toward…another line.

“Was that the ride?” Raul asked, confused.

“No, that’s the preshow,” Christine explained, brow creasing in confusion. “Wait, I thought you’d been on this one.”

“It’s…uh, been a while,” Raul muttered, watching the slow trawl of black omni-mover vehicles make their way menacingly toward them. They sat down and the creepy voice started back in, telling them he would lower the safety bar. Christine raised her arms expectantly, but Raul was slow on the uptake and the metal bar of the front of the vehicle slammed into his forearms hard enough to leave a bruise.

At least he got a kiss-it-better from Christine. 

“Aww, poor baby,” she crooned. “Yeah, it’s gotten me a few times too.”

But then she went quiet, evidently trying to soak in the ambiance. Well. What little they could see. It was pitch-black inside, punctuated with flashes of light from an artificial storm.

That was what Raul tried to concentrate on. This was a theme park ride, not a real haunted house. People went in and built it and sprinkled fake dust everywhere. None of the headstones in the exterior graveyard belonged to real people. The breeze that lifted the drapes and made goosebumps erupt on his arms were from blowers and A/C. It wasn’t _real_.

But that didn’t make it any less scary for him. They eyes in the wallpaper were unsettling, the corpse trying to get out of its coffin was freaky. Weirdly, one of the most disturbing things was a dusty old armchair that appeared to have the pattern of a spooky face drawn on the back. And then there were photos, evidently of corpses, grinning at the camera. 

That was when Raoul closed his eyes. It didn’t make the chill of the breeze any warmer, it didn’t block out the droning of the Ghost Host, but at least he didn’t have to look at any of it anymore. The whole thing was nightmare fodder from beginning to end.

The only reprieve he had was when Christine started singing beside him and clapping her hands to the beat.

“When the crypt doors creak, and the tombstones quake  
Spooks come out for a swinging wake  
Happy haunts materialize   
And begin to vocalize  
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize!”

He opened one eye. They were in a graveyard. Oh, _hell_ no. 

The bar whacked Raul again as it lifted itself.

_“Kindly watch your step.”_

“Raul?”

His eyes were still closed.

“Raul?” Christine was tugging his arm. The ride stopped. Another girl in a maid costume was standing by them, asking if they needed assistance. They were in a stone-walled room and the black buggies in front of them were empty. The ride was over. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Raul said, voice squeaking in a way it hadn’t since middle school. He awkwardly got out of the seat and stood on the platform. The girl in the maid costume told them to exit to the left and then she re-started the ride. At least the low lighting meant no one could see him blush.

Christine was biting her lip, looking altogether less cheerful than she had when she skipped through the empty ride. The gate now read 13-minute wait time.

“Score! No wait!” a nearby ten-year-old, dressed as one of Donald Duck’s nephews exclaimed.

“You…uh…wanna ride again?” Raoul offered, nodding toward the line.

“Did you hate that?” Christine asked, then answered her own question. “You hated that. Like, really hated that. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Raul couldn’t meet her eyes - instead he locked his gaze on a crooked statue of a frog in a pet cemetery. The frog was the least-spooky thing around.

“Um. Because it made you happy?” he replied, with a slight question in his voice. Then more quietly he added, “And I didn’t want you to think I’m a wuss.”

“Awww!” Christine wrapped him up in a giant hug. One of the foam ears of her Mickey headband got squished under his chin. “You’re not! That’s okay! You’re awesome! You’re so awesome for coming on this trip with me and riding a ride you hate! You’re the BEST! Okay?”

Raul squeezed her back. “_You’re_ the best. I’m just lucky to be along for the ride. I’m serious, if you want to ride again, I can just wait.”

But she shook her head, “I’ll be back in two days, I can wait - oh, hey!”

Her phone was buzzing in her back pocket and she showed him the text. “We can skip the line and meet my friend if you want! Apparently it’s a two-hour wait.”

“Jeez,” Raul said, eyebrows shooting up as Christine led the way back toward Main Street. “He must be an important guy.”

“He’s the King of Halloween!” Christine exclaimed cheerfully. So…he was playing Mickey? They reached the Main Street Theatre and a guy whose name tag declared him ‘Darius from Boston’ led them into a gift shop through a green door marked ‘Cast Members Only.’

“Erik said you guys were cast members?” Darius asked them. 

Raul, having been instructed to lie, just nodded, while Christine applied her acting ability to smile REALLY big and confirm verbally that yes, they were definitely cast members. 

Darius poked his head in a door, spoke to someone on the other side, and then beckoned them inside. They entered a short hallway, though Raul could see a woman in a khaki vest snapping a camera away. Apparently Christine’s friend was around the corner. He never asked what character he played.

“They’ll hold for a minute, just wait until this family goes through.”

A mom, dad, and two little kids left. The mom was wearing a patchwork dress, the dad a tuxedo t-shirt and the kids were dressed in wild Halloween costumes. 

“Thank you, Jack! Thank you, Sally!” the kids chorused and waved as dad scanned his MagicBand with a photopass photographer. 

“You’re welcome!” an upbeat voice that was only marginally less creepy than the Ghost Host called after them. “Happy Halloween!”

Darius nudged them forward. “Go ahead.”

But one of the figures came around the corner to meet them. Tall, spindly, in a pinstripe suit that emphasized how long and lanky he was. He extended white, spider-like hands toward them in an open embrace. On his shoulders was a white skeleton’s head.

“JACK!” Christine was grinning wide enough to crack her jaw. She sprinted into his open arms as the photographer clicked away on her camera. 

“Friends!” Jack (Erik?) replied warmly. “It is delightful to see you on this oh-so-magical night!” 

Nope. Nope. Nopenopenopenopenope.

“I’m good,” Raul said when it seemed like Jack wanted to wrap him in his skeletal embrace. “You guys…catch up. I’ll…wait outside.”


End file.
